1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to fuel regulators, and more specifically to fuel regulators which allow propane or other gasses to be injected into the air intake system of an internal combustion engine, particularly a diesel engine.
2. Background Information
It has long been known that injecting propane, butane, or other gasses into internal combustion engines, such as diesel engines, improves the performance of these engines. The injection of supplemental fuel such as propane increases power and mileage, and decreases operating costs. A number of regulators have been devised which are designed to control the admission and mixing of propane or other gasses into the air intake of a diesel engine. These devices have suffered from various drawbacks. One type of device has been a device which is placed inside a duct of the air intake system of the engine. The device partially obstructs the flow of the air intake tube. As the diesel engine pulls air through the tube and around the propane fuel regulating device, the flow of air around the device actuates the regulator to inject propane gas into the air stream flowing by the regulator. This type of device suffers from several disadvantages. Since it is placed directly in the airflow of the diesel engine, and operates by partially obstructing the flow of air, it is inevitable that this kind of device reduces the performance of a diesel engine by starving it of air. This type of device is also not very practical because the air intake ducting of the various diesel engines in production are all different in internal diameter and conformation. Therefore, one regulator of this type could not be built which fits all of the diesel engines in production. Instead, many different sizes of this type of regulator would have to be built, one for each intake system made for diesel engines. Further, it is costly and time consuming to install such devices into the air intake ducting.
Other regulators have been devised which are external to the air intake ducting of a diesel engine. Some of these devices are complicated in nature, making their manufacture expensive, and making them subject to failure and mis-adjustment in operation. Some of these devices also are installed as permanent and automatic supplemental fuel injectors, so that supplemental fuel is injected as soon as the engine is started, and throughout operation of the engine. This is not always desirable.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a supplemental fuel regulating system which can be installed on diesel engines of many sizes and configurations. It is a further object of the invention that the supplemental fuel regulating system supply supplemental fuel, such as propane, to the diesel engine based upon the varying requirements or demand of the engine. This would result in varying flows of propane for varying RPM's of the engine, to account for idling needs, acceleration needs, cruising needs, and power shut-off.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a supplemental fuel regulator which can be switched on or off at the operator's discretion, to allow the engine to operate as a conventional diesel engine, or to add supplemental fuel to the diesel engine.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a supplemental fuel regulator and regulation system which injects supplemental fuel into the air intake duct of a diesel engine.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description as follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.